I agree that was a local maximum, but I'd say peak Linux-on-Desktop was Ubuntu 16.04 with Unity 7. I'm hoping that Gnome 3 + Pop Shell will take us to the next

I agree that was a local maximum, but I'd say peak Linux-on-Desktop was Ubuntu 16.04 with Unity 7. I'm hoping that Gnome 3 + Pop Shell will take us to the next peak, but except for the awesome tiling we're still below the 2 previous maximums in the "everything-just-works" department.